The Word of Suffering: John 19:28

INTRODUCTION

One of the mistakes in counseling is when a counselor says: “I know how you feel.” In counseling class, they told us: “Never tell a person, ‘I know how you feel.’” The reason for the avoidance is because as a counselor, you can never know exactly how a person feels. The counselor’s knowledge is limited. you lack the experience and the trauma that the counselee has been through. You are encouraged to ask questions and look at an issue objectively; offer help and insight; encourage the person to come to a solution. But you are to never state: “I know how you feel.”

Jesus is different than any counselor you may have experienced. Because, He does know how you feel. Because He is God in the flesh, He has knowledge of every human frailty and misgiving. What’s more, He did experience the depth of human hurt, betrayal and discouragement. And yet, He pressed through for your sake in order to reconcile you to His Father.

In this fourth installment on Jesus’ final words from the cross, let’s examine what is known as “The Word of Suffering,” and see what great empathy and love he has for you.

Jesus endured much physical stress for your sake. You will notice that there was emotional and spiritual as well as physical pain endured by Jesus. In reflection of Jesus suffering, let us look at Jesus’ final words from the cross, found in the gospel of John.

These words come at the end of Jesus’ life. He has little time left on this side of death. The first sentence says so much in light of Jesus’ life.

Jesus’ suffering was part of the Father’s plan.

John 19:28 (ESV)

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

All of this happened as a result of the Father’s plan completed; His assigned work being finished and His life as a fulfillment of Scripture. There were many times in Jesus’ life that He avoided death. At each time, the gospel writers would record something to the effect: “His time had not yet come….” For instance, we are told that the Jews were seeking to kill him. He said to them in

John 7:3–6 (ESV)

3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come....

Jesus was keenly aware that everything in His life was a fulfillment of Scripture and thus was mapped-out by the Father’s plan. Regardless of how we might think of Scripture, Jesus saw that it was the disciples’ chief authority; without error. He said in the Sermon on the Mount that not even the smallest portion of the law would pass away until all of it was fulfilled (Matthew 5:17).

Looking back on His life, He saw His suffering, His death and His resurrection as a glorious fulfillment of God’s plan. In contrast, we don’t look at suffering as God ordained. We think that life should be free of pain and adversity. But that just is not realistic, is it?

All of these could be John’s intentional allusion to Jesus being the Passover lamb, which is certainly a New Testament concept. According to John 19:14, the precise time that Jews were preparing for the Passover, Jesus is being presented before Pilate. In an eerie sort of way, Pilate states: “Behold your King!” It was as if He is saying what John the Baptist said: “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).”

Later, after He was raised from the dead, Jesus explained to two of his discouraged disciples on the Road to Emmaus in...

Luke 24:25–27 (ESV)

25 “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the political resistant and Christian martyr during WW II wrote:

“Death on the cross means suffering and dying as one who is rejected and cast out. Jesus must suffer and be rejected by virtue of divine necessity. Any attempt to interfere with what is necessary is satanic… because it does not want to let Christ be Christ… .” (Bonhoeffer, God is On the Cross 56)

Jesus’ suffering was part of the Father’s plan. Secondly...

Jesus experienced the full range of human emotion and need in order to identify with your emotions and needs.

John 19:28–29 ESV

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

A mockery of satisfying His thirst, John 19: 29 tells us that they filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. Hyssop was a plant used for sprinkling blood or water in Jewish religious ceremonies.

The fact that Jesus was thirsty from the cross tells us that He experienced so much of His humanity. His statement proves that Jesus was a real human being. He experienced betrayal, discouragement, and now his body is racked with pain; at the very end, He expresses thirst.

Psalm 22:15 describes the level of thirst He experienced.

Psalm 22:15 ESV

15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

A potsherd is a broken piece of pottery, dried hard and good for nothing. The way that they treated his thirst was cruel, sour, wine-vinegar would hardly quench a thirst; would make most of us sick. Psalm 69:20-21 states:

Psalm 69:20–21 ESV

20 Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

Jesus was dehydrated. He probably had not had anything to drink in at least 24 hours. Because of the physical stress He was under, it most likely He was reaching a state of extreme lack of fluids.

Water is needed for circulation and other bodily processes including respiration and converting food to energy. If you are losing more water than you are taking in, dehydration will occur. It has been shown that if you lose just 2.5% of your body weight from water loss, you will lose 25% of your efficiency. For a 175 pound man that is only about two quarts of water.

As the survivor dehydrates, his blood becomes thicker and loses volume. This causes the heart to work harder and circulation of blood to be less efficient (http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/how-long-can-you-survive-without-water.) All of this reminds us of His extreme suffering on our behalf.

Jesus was thirsty on another occasion and used it to witness of His saving power. In John 4, we see that he came to the well in the town of Samaria called Sychar and there he met a Samaritan woman.

Jesus asks for a drink, having traveled for the whole of the day. He was thirsty. But he uses his thirst as an opportunity to speak into the woman’s life. He knows everything about her. And yet cares enough for her to speak of her greatest need. It was there that he told her that He could give her living water.

In this, his stated physical need, we are reminded that he endured so much on our behalf. His body was ravaged. He was beaten beyond recognition. Many did not survive Roman flogging. Jesus was crucified after such a barbaric action. Hebrews 4:15 states:

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

We do not serve a God that is far off, sleep, or unaware of what we experience. He is familiar with human tragedy and self-imposed human limitations. While at the same time he is fully God. As the Nicene creed teaches us fully God and fully man. We can trust in him that he is all powerful and all good. And we can be comforted by the fact that he was human, as we are. He experienced love, anger, sadness, thirst and pain. The shortest verse in the Bible is from John chapter 11 when upon the death of his good friend Lazarus, it says: “Jesus wept.”

God empathizes with you. And that’s why the Scriptures say cast your burdens upon the Lord, for he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you (Psalm 55:22). He is intimately acquainted with all of your ways (Psalm 139:3). He knows our weaknesses. He is a great God, because he condescends to us.

Never should you think that God doesn’t know your predicament. Never should you think that God cannot or does not sympathize with your situation. God has tremendous empathy for you. HE KNOWS HOW YOU FEEL!

CONCLUSION

His plan and suffering were done out of love. Jesus’ suffering was part of the Father’s plan. Jesus experienced the full range of human emotion and need in order to identify with your emotions and needs.

Hear the words of Caspar Schwenckfeld.

“Dearest Lord Jesus Christ! For the sake of our salvation and blessedness you bore inexpressibly great thirst upon the cross. I pray that you would quench in me the heart and ardour of carnal desire and the thirst of idle vanities, property and wealth and the insatiable craving for the evil yet sweet things which are pleasing to the flesh. May I thirst for you, the all-sweetest drink of Your Spirit so that I may not rob myself together with You, or Yourself with me, of the highly-craved happiness of my salvation. Amen.” (Caspar Schwenckfeld, Passional and Prayer Book, 41).